spending bill that kept the government from shutting down was some $110 billion for the war in Afghanistan. That's more than in any other year since the conflict began, although the Obama administration hopes to start winding it down this year.

President Barack Obama plans to begin drawing down his force of 97,000 U.S. soldiers in Afghanistan in July, although the size and nature of that drawdown remains unclear.

Here are a few facts about the costs of the Afghan war to U.S. taxpayers:

COSTS SO FAR

Congress has appropriated $386 billion so far for the war in Afghanistan, where the United States in 2001 supported the toppling of the Taliban after the September 11 attacks, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) says. CBO is the budget analyst for Congress.

The total to date includes $38 billion for training and equipping Afghan military and police units. The goal is to leave behind security forces that can take on fighting the Taliban as U.S. forces start to leave.

But some recent events, including a massive jailbreak at an Afghan-run jail in Kandahar and a mob attack on a U.N. compound in Mazar-i-Sharif, have raised doubts about Afghan security capabilities.

COMPARISON WITH IRAQ, COST OF BOTH WARS

The $110 billion being spent in Afghanistan in fiscal 2011 is more than double the $44 billion being spent in Iraq this year, CBO says. Two years ago, the relationship was the other way around; then, Iraq carried the far bigger price tag.

Afghanistan became the more expensive battleground in 2010 after Obama sent a surge of 30,000 more forces there and started drawing troops down in Iraq.

Nonetheless, over the years, the United States has spent almost twice as much money in Iraq as in Afghanistan. CBO says the total for the Iraq operations is about $752 billion since the United States went to war there in 2003, compared to the $386 billion for Afghanistan since 2001.

When operations in Iraq and Afghanistan are combined together and some "other" costs are added, U.S. taxpayers have spent $1.26 trillion on both wars, CBO says.

That total excludes about $8 billion in spending for medical care and benefits for survivors of the two wars by the Department of Veterans Affairs, CBO says.

FOREIGN AID AND CIVILIAN SURGE

Foreign aid, including development assistance to Afghanistan managed by the State Department and U.S. AID, has totaled some $25.1 billion since 2002, a recent report by the Congressional Research Service (CRS) says. CRS prepares reports on issues that U.S. lawmakers ask it to probe.

Development aid increased in recent years as part of a "civilian stabilization strategy" by the Obama administration. The idea is to foster economic growth and improve basic services so Afghans feel they will have a better future with the Afghan government, rather than the Taliban.

The Obama administration has asked for another $4.3 billion for these purposes in fiscal 2012. With some lawmakers trying to cut overseas aid to reduce the U.S. government deficit, General David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Afghanistan, has warned that failure to adequately fund civilians working alongside his forces could "jeopardize accomplishment of the overall mission".

COSTS PER SOLDIER, AND THE FUTURE

Costs per troop per year in Afghanistan have grown from $507,000 in 2009 to $667,000 in 2010 and $697,000 this year, the Congressional Research Service says.

Some would argue this reflects the effect of deploying additional troops, mounting more operations and expanding infrastructure, the CRS said in a March report.

Future expenses are a question mark, partly because troop levels are uncertain. Obama says he wants to start withdrawing troops in mid-2011, but that will depend, in part, on conditions on the ground.

Iraq costs should continue winding down sharply, if the remaining 47,000 U.S. troops there are withdrawn as planned by the end of this year.

Afghanistan's justice minister has said the 488 inmates who escaped from Kandahar's main prison through a tunnel must have had inside help.

Habibullah Ghaleb told President Hamid Karzai that much of the blame for the Taliban-led breakout lay with local security forces and foreign troops.

Mr Ghaleb said the house where the 360m-long tunnel began was searched 10 weeks ago but nothing was reported.

Only 71 prisoners have been recaptured since a manhunt was launched on Monday.

The governor of Sarposa jail, Gen Ghulam Dastgir, said many of the escapees were likely to have fled to safe havens in neighbouring Pakistan.

The Taliban said 541 prisoners had escaped through the tunnel, and that 106 of them were commanders - four of them former provincial chiefs.

'Big blow'
The political wing of the jail, where the 1m (3ft) wide tunnel emerged on Sunday night, was like a compound, Gen Dastgir said, with prisoners free to move between cells and no locks on individual doors.

But Mr Ghaleb said there had been failings: the inmates of each cell should not have been able to access the room where the tunnel began, he said, while the "big convoy" of vehicles used to move the prisoners from the house should have been spotted from the prison.

"The mass escape of the prisoners from one tunnel indicates inside help and facilitation from the prison," he said in an initial report.

Continue reading the main story
Afghan prison escapes

June 2008: More than 900 prisoners escape from Sarposa prison in Kandahar after a suicide bomber blasted open the gates
July 2010: 19 prisoners escape after a blast at a prison in Farah province
November 2009: 12 prisoners escape after tunnelling out of a jail from their cells in Farah
Taliban reveal details of daring jail escape
Mohammad Abdullah, one of the inmates at Sarposa who the Taliban claimed had helped organise the escape, said "friends" had managed to obtain copies of the keys to the cells beforehand, suggesting collusion by the guards.

Mr Ghaleb also criticised Canadian and US troops who have been responsible for security improvements to the prison. He asked how they had failed to notice the tunnel was being dug underneath their feet.

"The house where the tunnel was found was searched by security forces two-and-a-half months ago," he added. "Earth or soil dug out of the tunnel must have been moved and should not have been missed."

Taliban spokesman Zabiullah Mujahid told the BBC that they had "proper digging equipment" and the "support of skilled professionals".

He said earth from the tunnel, which took five months to complete, was taken away from the house gradually and "sold at the market".

An National Directorate of Security officer investigating the escape, Gen Tahir Mohmand, said prison officials had been warned several times recently that there were reports the Taliban were planning some sort of operation.

"We had some clues that the Taliban were busy in some kind of plan to get their prisoners out."

'Shortcomings'
The governor of Kandahar province, Tooryalai Wesa, told the BBC he did not know if there had been any specific warnings from the NDS.

"I didn't see something like that. The reports were different. The reports were vague. There was no report about digging a tunnel in Kandahar."

But he admitted there had been "some shortcomings on our side".


Some of the recaptured prisoners were shown to reporters in Kandahar on Tuesday
"These things happen - we have examples from other countries," he added. "But these people cannot run. We have all their data, and it has been passed onto neighbouring countries, districts and provinces."

A senior security official in Kandahar told the BBC: "This prison break is a big blow in many ways."

"Now that 106 Taliban field commanders are out on in the open, our lives, those of our officers and more importantly people who helped the government are at risk," he added. "Unless people are held accountable and a thorough investigation is done, we will not get to the bottom of it."

The BBC's Bilal Sarwary in Kandahar says the Sarposa prison break is a huge embarrassment for the Afghan government, as it comes less than two weeks after Kandahar's police chief was killed by a suicide bomber inside his heavily defended compound.

In June 2008, the Taliban orchestrated the escape of more than 900 prisoners at Sarposa, including hundreds of militants, in an attack that killed 15 guards. A suicide bomber was used to blast open the gates.

Saboteurs bombed an Egyptian gas pipeline in the Sinai on Wednesday, sending flames shooting into the sky and cutting supplies to Israel and Jordan.
It was the second attack since February and came two weeks after Egypt's new government decided to review all contracts to supply gas abroad, including to neighbours Israel and Jordan, amid corruption probes.
Officials said the attack took place at dawn near Al-Sabil village in the El-Arish region.
On March 27, exactly a month earlier, six armed men stormed the gas terminal in the northern Sinai town and placed explosive devices which failed to explode.
Wednesday's bomb was activated remotely, a security official told AFP, while the state-run MENA news agency reported flames as high as 20 metres (65 feet) shooting from the ruptured pipeline.
MENA said armed forces rushed to the scene and quoted locals as saying they heard a "huge" explosion followed by a massive fireball.
There were no reports of casualties.
Several hours later, Gasco, the company responsible for the pipeline, said the fire had been brought under control.
MENA quoted Gasco president Majdi Tewfik as saying a technical committee was tasked with evaluating the damage.
The agency also quoted a security official as saying increased security measures would be implemented in the area, as witnesses said there had been little security presence at the time of the explosion.
Israel's National Infrastructure Minister Uzi Landau told army radio there would be no immediate impact on supply.
Asked if he expected a shortage that would result in electricity cuts, he said: "No. There is still a certain amount of gas in the pipeline which we can use.

team of United Nations investigators sought answers on Wednesday from Libyan officials about allegations forces loyal to Muammar Gaddafi had committed human rights violations.

The three-member commission of inquiry met Libyan officials and said it would be pressing for access to prisons, hospitals and areas of the country where it suspects rights abuses are taking place.

"We have a number of questions dealing with indiscriminate bombing of civilian areas, civilian casualties, torture and the use of mercenaries and other questions," said Cherif Bassiouni, an Egyptian legal expert and member of the commission.

"The commission of inquiry is here to inquire and find out from the Libyan government side what its position is with respect to several types of violations which ... (we) discovered during our field investigation," he told reporters after talks with Libyan officials.

Asked what access the U.N. team was expected to be given by the Libyan authorities, Bassiouni said: "We don't know that yet. We have put it all in writing and stated it verbally and we intend to push for it."

The United Nations, Western governments and some Arab states accuse Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi of ordering his security forces to kill hundreds of civilians who rose up in protest against his four-decade rule.

Libyan officials deny killing civilians, saying security forces were forced to act against armed gangs and al Qaeda sympathizers who, they say, are trying to seize control of the oil exporting country.

Bassiouni said he would also use the delegation's visit to Tripoli to raise the issue of foreign journalists being held in Libya.

Libyan authorities are holding two U.S. journalists, one Spaniard, a South African and a Canadian, according to the U.S.-based Committee to Protect Journalists. Officials say they only hold journalists if they are in the country illegally.

"I have ... given them (the Libyan government) a list of all the foreign journalists who are in detention," Bassiouni said.

"We have asked for an opportunity to visit them and to ask why they are not being released. Hopefully this initiative will have some impact on the journalists."

The commission of inquiry was set up in February by the U.N.'s Human Rights Council, and is due to submit its report on rights violations in Libya by June.

Bassiouni said the commission has already carried out field investigations in rebel-controlled eastern Libya, as well as on Libya's borders, and was planning further trips to Tripoli.

Death toll of NATO-led International Security Assistance Force (ISAF) at shootout in Kabul airport on Wednesday reached nine, a statement of the military alliance released here said.

"Eight International Security Assistance Force service members and one ISAF civilian died following a shooting incident here today," the statement confirmed.

However, it did not identify the nationalities of the victims, saying it is ISAF policy to defer casualty identification procedures to the relevant national authorities.

In the previous statement the alliance put the number of casualties suffered at the incident which happened at Afghan Air Corps at 11:00 a.m. local time just six soldiers.

Earlier, Afghan Defense Ministry confirmed in a statement that shootout between an Afghan pilot and his foreign colleagues at Afghan Air Corps which located in western part of Kabul airport left a number of people dead and injured.

Afghan Defense Ministry in the statement also noted that more details would be released after completion of investigation.

Meantime, Taliban militants fighting Afghan and NATO-led troops in Afghanistan claimed of responsibility, saying in the incident carried out by a Taliban loyalist nine foreign and five Afghan soldiers were killed.

dissident republican group has threatened to kill police officers and says it will oppose the Queen's first visit to the Republic of Ireland.
In a statement, a masked member of the Real IRA told a crowd in a Londonderry cemetery: "The Queen of England is wanted for war crimes in Ireland and not wanted on Irish soil."
He added that the police were "as liable for execution as anyone regardless of their religion, cultural background or motivation".
The rally was reported to have been organised by the 32 County Sovereignty Movement to mark the anniversary of the 1916 Easter Rising.
The statement read: "Despite the best efforts of the media, big business and other power blocks to portray this visit as acceptable, we clearly state that the Irish people will not capitulate.
"The Queen of England is wanted for war crimes in Ireland and not wanted on Irish soil.
"We will do our best to ensure she and the gombeen class that act as her cheerleaders get that message."

Barack Obama's inability to shut Guantánamo Bay – more than two years after he ordered its closure – has become a symbol to many of the gap between the promise and rhetoric of his early presidency and the brutal realpolitik that quickly engulfed him.

Nearly a decade after the extrajudicial prison camp opened, 172 of its 779 inmates are still marooned there and Obama – who faced 240 captives when he came to office – has admitted it's not likely to close any time soon. The leaked Guantánamo files offer an insight into why.

According to the documents, those still held fall roughly into three groups: the bad, the unprosecutable and the homeless. Some were active terrorists but others merely fought for the Taliban when the US invaded Afghanistan after 9/11.

The so-called "worst of the worst" are 40 inmates who have been or may yet be prosecuted. They include members of the "Dirty 30" alleged to have been Osama bin Laden's bodyguards, plus those claimed to belong to his inner circle.

At their head is Khalid Sheikh Mohammed, 51, whose scowling, battered-looking mugshot from his 2003 capture has become a familiar news staple. According to his 15-page prison dossier, "KSM", who grew up in Kuwait, told a fellow plotter that the 11 September 2001 attacks had been his "dream and life's work". He was repeatedly waterboarded in a CIA prison.

Obama has had to abandon his idea of putting "KSM" and four others on trial in New York near the site of Ground Zero. They may face a military tribunal at Guantánamo instead. The five are locked up in Camp 7, a high-security cage. They are among 14 "high-value detainees" extracted from secret CIA prisons in 2006 and flown to Cuba. Two others in the group were also waterboarded, according to admissions.

One was Muhammad al-Nashiri, listed as "one of the highest-ranking, most skilled and dangerous al-Qaida operatives captured to date". The Saudi inmate is accused of more than a dozen terror plots, including attempts to blow up the British embassy in Yemen and UK warships at Gibraltar.

His file says: "He had personally chosen the UK military base in Gibraltar to be the target for the operation … He had seen a news documentary on the base and thought it was a good target." But Moroccan intelligence arrested a local team over the Gibraltar plot in 2002 and Nashiri was subsequently picked up in Dubai and turned over to the CIA for "enhanced interrogation".

In one of its more bizarre passages, his dossier says: "Detainee is so dedicated to jihad that he reportedly received injections to promote impotence and recommended the injections to others so more time could be spent on the jihad."


Abu Zubaydah.
The third waterboarded "high-value" inmate is 40-year-old Palestinian Abu Zubaydah. His lawyer, Brent Mickum, says he "was not, and never had been, a member of either the Taliban or al-Qaida. The CIA determined this after torturing him extensively".

But his file claims he was in Bin Laden's inner circle, alleges he discussed a "dirty bomb" with a Briton, Binyam Mohamed, and provided false passports according to another Briton, Moazzam Begg. An assessment dated November 2008 says: "Detainee has provided a wealth of information … [He] continues to be a valuable source of intelligence for operations still occurring today."


Maad al-Qahtani.
The second group of captives consists of 73 inmates whose future remains unresolved. More than half are "too dangerous to transfer but not feasible for prosecution" in the words of Daniel Fried, Obama's special envoy on closing Guantánamo. They include those who it is conceded have been tortured to such an extent they cannot be prosecuted under any fair legal process, such as Maad al-Qahtani, the would-be "20th hijacker" of 9/11.

Early moves by the White House to transfer these detainees to a facility in the US while it figured out what to do with them foundered after the Senate voted down a budget for it amid rising public resistance to the idea of allowing potentially dangerous terrorists on to US soil.

Finally there are 59 people who the US claims could be transferred if only other countries were willing to take them, and in some cases supervise them.

The homeless include 27 Yemenis. Yemenis form the largest single group still imprisoned in Guantánamo and cannot return, according to Fried, "because of the deteriorating security environment in that country". The US wanted transferred Yemenis to be "detoxed" at a Saudi-run rehabilitation camp before being released into Yemeni custody, but Yemen's president, Ali Abdullah Saleh, objected.

Another prisoner awaiting a home is Mahrar Rafat al-Quwari, a Palestinian, no longer assessed as high-risk. He fought with Bin Laden at Tora Bora and was accused of being "non-compliant and sometimes hostile to the guard force". His alleged infractions included "inciting a disturbance", hitting a guard with his elbow and stating "all Americans are liars". In 2009 Switzerland was asked to accept him, but it is unclear whether it has agreed.

The leaked files document increasingly desperate attempts to find inmates alternative homes, particularly 20 Uighurs – Chinese Muslims rounded up from a Taliban camp at Tora Bora in 2002.

The White House has tried to bribe small countries into accepting them. It will not forcibly return the Uighurs to China – ironically, because of fears that they may be imprisoned or tortured.

The US did manage to unload five on Albania, where they are claimed to have settled down well. According to documents: "Three are currently trying to get funding to open up a halal pizza restaurant. All have had cooking classes and two are working at restaurants in Tirana."

Other states have been reluctant to take any Uighurs for fear of Chinese anger. China has protested to every country that accepted any, and privately berated US diplomats for what one Chinese ambassador called a "slap in the face".

As a result, when the US in desperation offered some to Slovenia in 2009, the ambassador cabled home that the Slovenian prime minister had "blanched".


Ahmed Mohammed Yaqub.
Some Uighurs eventually went to Switzerland and Bermuda. Only five remain in Guantánamo: four footsoldiers who have not been classed as a threat since 2005 and their alleged leader, Ahmed Mohammed Yaqub, who has been downgraded from his 2008 high-risk assessment.

The five refuse to go to the only two tiny island havens on offer, Palau and the Maldives, where they say they have no cultural ties. On 18 April the US supreme court threw out their bid to be allowed into the US instead.

Guantánamo Bay files demonstrate how authorities tried to cover up Binyam Mohammed's harsh interrogation in Pakistan and torture in Morocco before he signed a confession under duress. Photograph: Shaun Curry/AFP/Getty Images

Guantánamo's commandant tried to stop the incoming Obama administration returning Binyam Mohamed to Britain, claiming he had "unique information of intelligence value" and had plotted "to inflict mass casualties within the US".

The US military insisted Mohamed was involved in a so-called "dirty bomb" plot. But the authorities cited discredited testimony extracted from a fellow prisoner who had himself been waterboarded.

The leaked reassessment of Binyam Mohamed's case, dated 26 December 2008 and signed by Rear Admiral David Thomas, graphically demonstrates the flimsiness of much of the evidence extracted by CIA interrogators in their secret prisons. Those interrogated were subsequently deposited in Guantánamo where their confessions were apparently treated as hard fact.

On the basis of this material Thomas said he "recommends this detainee for continued detention … Even if released with rehabilitation, close supervision and means to successfully reintegrate into his society … [he] would probably re-engage in extremist activities … GTMO determines this detainee to be a high risk, as he is likely to pose a threat to US interests and allies."

There were two key factors against Mohamed, according to Thomas's report: that he had confessed, and that another inmate, Abu Zubaydah, confirmed his link to a "dirty bomb" plot against America. Both pieces of evidence, it has now been established, were obtained by ill-treatment possibly amounting to torture.

The Thomas report, classified "Secret/NoForn", says Mohamed had previously been in US custody at Bagram in Afghanistan and confessed in July 2004. "During an interrogation in 2004 detainee admitted guilt on his part and 'wished to bring his case to a peaceful resolution' which included a signed statement documenting his activities … Detainee admitted his involvement in the H-bomb plot intended to attack the US."

However, according to Mohamed himself, who was released only a few weeks later in February 2009 after UK government intervention, he was at the time of the confession being kept shackled for days on end in a pitch-black CIA cell, systematically deprived of sleep and subjected to 24-hour rock music played at top volume. It followed brutal torture in cells in Morocco, where his genitals were slashed with a scalpel, he says.

This in turn came after admitted degrading ill-treatment in Pakistan – where he was captured in 2002 – that took place with the complicity of MI5 officers. The UK court of appeal ruled last year he had been subjected to "cruel, inhuman and degrading treatment by the United States authorities".

Mohamed says his confession was false. After he made it he was transfered to Guantánamo, on 19 September 2004.The Guantánamo "detainee assessment" report claims details of Mohamed's involvement in the dirty bomb plot were confirmed by another inmate. But it discloses his identity: Abu Zubaydah, a Palestinian who it is now admitted was waterboarded – a near-drowning experience – in another secret prison by CIA interrogators to make him implicate others. Zubaydah's prisoner number is GZ-10016.

The Thomas report says: "GZ-10016 stated detainee and US-10008 presented the idea to him of constructing a nuclear dirty bomb for an attack against the US. GZ-10016 reported detainee stated he could make the dirty bomb work and expressed his willingness to become a martyr." US-1008 is José Padilla, who was subsequently arrested entering the US and eventually convicted on other charges of aiding terrorism but never faced charges relating to the dirty bomb claims.

As well as citing Zubaydah's post-waterboarding statements to interrogators, the files claim that Mohamed downloaded instructions on how to build an "H-bomb" from the internet. But it has emerged since Mohamed's release that the material he viewed was a spoof article by a US satirical magazine.

second time in just three years, inmates have managed to escape one of Afghanistan's biggest prisons. At least 470 prisoners, including Taliban commanders and fighters, fled overnight through a tunnel from Sarposa jail outside Kandahar.

Zabiullah Mujahid, a Taliban spokesman, told BBC Pashto that the tunnel was more than 360m (1,180ft) long and took five months to complete.

He said the tunnel led from a house north-east of the prison, which "our friends" had rented, to the political wing, where Taliban were held. It bypassed security checkpoints and the main Kandahar-Kabul road.

"We had proper digging equipment. There was so much earth from the tunnel that we carried it away gradually and sold it in the market."


The tunnel led to a mud-walled compound with a brown gate and shops on either side
"We had the support of skilled professionals - people who were trained engineers, who advised us on the digging," he added. "We managed to hit the spot where the prisoners were kept."

Police showed journalists the hole in the cement floor of the prison cell. The opening was about 1m (3ft) in diameter. The tunnel dropped straight down for about 1.5m (5ft) and appeared to go in the direction of a mud-walled compound with a brown gate and shops on either side.

There are guard towers at each corner of the prison compound, which is lit at night and protected by a ring of concrete barriers topped with razor wire. The entrance can only be reached by passing through several checkpoints.

The Taliban spokesman said three militants inside the prison had known about the plan, and that they had ushered prisoners to the tunnel.


Afghan prison escapes

June 2008: More than 900 prisoners escape from Sarposa prison in Kandahar after a suicide bomber blasted open the gates
July 2010: 19 prisoners escape after a blast at a prison in Farah province
November 2009: 12 prisoners escape after tunnelling out of a jail from their cells in Farah
Mohammad Abdullah, one of the inmates at Sarposa who Taliban spokesmen said had helped organise the escape, said "friends" had managed to obtain copies of the keys to the cells beforehand, suggesting collusion by the guards.

"When the time came at night, we managed to open the doors for friends who were in other rooms," he told the Associated Press.

Zabiullah Mujahid added: "In order to make sure it went smoothly, they only woke people up a few at a time, room by room. This was to keep the escape secret and to make sure the guards didn't know what was going on.

"People escaped in small numbers, room by room - this avoided overcrowding and noise. It was all very professional."


The tunnel dropped straight down for about 1.5m (5ft) from the cell floor
He said there had been no guards inside the cell where the tunnel emerged.

"At the other end, in the house where the tunnel started, we positioned suicide bombers so that if something happened, if fighting broke out, they could respond," he added.

He said 541 prisoners were able to escape during the operation, which began at about 2300 local time on Sunday and ended at 0330 on Monday morning.

Officials declined to provide details on any of the escaped inmates, but another Taliban spokesman said about 106 of the inmates were commanders - four of them former provincial chiefs.

The escapees were taken in vehicles to a "safe places" and then the Taliban alerted the media about what had just happened, Zabiullah Mujahid added. The prison authorities knew nothing about the escape until then, he claimed.

Officials at Sarposa prison say they discovered the breach at 0400.


In June 2008, the Taliban orchestrated the escape of more than 900 prisoners at Sarposa
The governor of Kandahar province, Tooryalai Wesa, said the breakout was "absolutely the fault of the ignorance of the security forces".

"This was not the work of a day, a week or a month of activities, this was actually months of work they spent to dig and free their men."

The police have mounted a massive search operation for the inmates. Officers had already rearrested 26 and shot two who tried to flee, Mr Wesa added.

But Zabiullah Mujahid denied that some of them had been found.

"These claims that they have recaptured people are untrue. They are just saying that to justify their negligence," he said.

In June 2008, the Taliban orchestrated the escape of more than 900 prisoners at Sarposa, including hundreds of militants, in an attack that killed 15 guards. A suicide bomber was used to blast open the gates.

The annual survey, the EU Terrorism Situation and Trend Report, out on Tuesday (19 April) covering events in 2010, noted that the vast majority of terrorist incidents in the EU last year came from separatist groups such as Eta in Spain or the Turkish group, the PKK/Kongra-Gel.

Foiled or successful separatist attacks accounted for 160 out of the total 249 cases in 2010, compared to 45 far-left incidents and just three Islamist cases.

The highest number of arrests on terrorism charges came in France (219), followed by Spain (118), Ireland (62), the UK (45) and the Netherlands (39). Germany, the largest EU country, recorded just 25 and Italy 29. Small countries Belgium (20) and Greece (18) saw high levels of arrests. Romania (16) was the only post-Communist EU member with a notable figure.

In terms of overall trends, numbers went down year-on-year in France, Italy, Spain and the UK. But they went up in Germany, Ireland and the Netherlands.

The biggest change comes in the nature of the groups involved, however.

EU countries saw a 50 percent jump in the number of arrests linked to Islamist terrorism and a 12 percent jump in cases linked to far-left and anarchist groups. In Greece, the far-left figure jumped 30 percent.

Remarking on the ideology of Islamist groups such as Al-Qaeda in the Islamic Maghreb (AQIM) and Al-Qaeda in the Arabian Peninsula (AQAP), Europol said incitements to violence concentrated on: the Mohammed cartoons in Denmark; banning the veil in France; the Swiss anti-minaret vote; the war in Afghanistan; and Spain's 'occupation' of Ceuta and Melilla in Morocco.

On the Arab spring, it noted that AQIM and AQAP "have been reduced to observers, incapable of influencing events" and suffered "a notable setback … in terms of support and recruitment" because peaceful protests have proved more effective in deposing dictators than years of terrorist attacks.

It added, however: "should Arab expectations [of political reform] not be met, the consequence may be a surge in support for those terrorist organisations." It also said: "Such mass actions may ... create a democratic space for organisations with similar [anti-Western] objectives" and "such organisations may be able to take advantage of the temporary reduction of state control."

On the issue of EU-bound Arab migrants, the report warned that: "Individuals with terrorist aims could easily enter Europe amongst the large numbers of immigrants."

It also warned that far-right groups might try to exploit xenophobia in European society, saying: "If the unrest in the Arab world … leads to a major influx of immigrants into Europe, right-wing extremism and terrorism might gain a new lease of life by articulating more widespread public apprehension about immigration."

Europol said far-left and anarchist groups in Europe have traditionally used a Marxist-Leninst discourse of anti-capitalism, anti-militarism and anti-authoritarianism.

But in 2010 growing unemployment "has radicalised some youths, even those with relatively high levels of education" and "left-wing and anarchist extremists [have] also focused on the global economic recession … [and] austerity measures."

It voiced concern about EU citizens traveling abroad to theatres of conflict such as Afghanistan, learning terrorist skills and importing them back home. It said the number of EU nationals involved in jihadist conflicts abroad is "in the low hundreds."

Remarking on the study, Europol director Rob Wainwright said in his foreword that: "Member States have agreed to regard terrorist acts as those which aim to intimidate populations, compel states to comply with the perpetrators demands and/or destabilise the fundamental political, constitutional, economical or social structures of a country or an international organization."

The statist definition excludes attacks by states against unrecognised entities, such as the Taliban in Afghanistan, which have killed far more civilians than any 'terrorist' incidents in Europe.

A senior functionary of al-Qaeda terrorist outfit has been gunned down by Russian forces in insurgency-plagued North Caucasus region, reports said on Friday.

In a statement, Moscow's National Anti-Terrorist Committee said Saudi-born Haled Yusef Muhammad al Emirat also called Moganned, had been killed along with another militant in an encounter with security forces in Chechnya.

Moganned, who functioned as al-Qaeda's chief envoy in the Caucasus, was killed in a raid near Serzhen-Yurt village in southern Chechnya Thursday.

Further the Anti-Terrorist Committee said Moganned was active in the Russian Caucasus since 1999 and by 2005 he had become al-Qaeda's top functionary in the region. He reportedly drew on his exhaustive network of contacts to help raise foreign funds for the terrorist outfit, especially from the Arabian Peninsula.

A spokesman for the Anti-Terror Committee has been quoted as saying in a televised statement that the dead militant was actively involved in planning and successfully carryng out majority of suicide attacks witnessed in the region over the last couple of years.

According to pro-rebel website kavkazcenter.com, Moganned, had been killed along with two other militants in clashes with Russin security forces.

US missiles have killed 25 people in an al Qaida and Taliban sanctuary close to the Afghan border, Pakistan officials said, signalling American intent to press ahead with such attacks despite renewed protests by Islamabad.
And a well-known Pakistani politician said he and his followers would try to "blockade" Nato supplies which pass through Pakistan en route to Afghanistan over the weekend to protest against the strikes.
Some of the missile victims were militants loyal to Hafiz Gul Bahadar, a commander known to stage attacks against foreign troops in Afghanistan, but two women and five children were also killed, said the officials.
The US has been regularly firing missiles into the border region for two and a half years now, but does not formally acknowledge the CIA-run programme. US officials rarely comment on specific strikes, but have said in general terms that they accurately hit militants.
The officials said up to 10 missiles destroyed a compound in Spinwam village in North Waziristan, home to militants targeting American and Nato troops just across the border in Afghanistan, as well as to al Qaida terrorists.
The US is seeking Pakistan's co-operation in helping stabilise Afghanistan, but tensions between the two nations rose sharply this year after an American CIA contractor shot and killed two Pakistani men he said were trying to rob him.
A day after the contractor's release from prison in March, a missile strike which allegedly killed dozens of innocent tribesmen prompted a rare and strong protest by Pakistan army chief General Ashfaq Parvez Kayani.
General Kayani said the "drone strikes undermine our national effort against terrorism and turn public support against our efforts, which remains the key to success".
Pakistan's army and political leadership have always publicly condemned the missile attacks but are believed to have sanctioned them privately.

Britain discussed plans to exploit Iraq's oil reserves with some of the world's biggest oil companies five months before it joined the United States in invading the country, the Independent newspaper said on Tuesday.

Citing documents it said were obtained under a Freedom of Information Act request by campaigner and author Greg Muttitt, the newspaper said at least five meetings were held between government officials and oil majors BP (BP.L) and Royal Dutch Shell (RDSa.L) in October and November 2002.

"Shell and BP could not afford not to have a stake in (Iraq) for the sake of their long-term future," Edward Chaplin, the Foreign Office's former Middle East director was quoted as saying after a meeting with oil groups in October 2002.

"We were determined to get a fair slice of the action for UK companies in a post-Saddam Iraq," he said, according to minutes of the meeting which could not be independently verified.

A month later, the Foreign Office invited BP again to discuss opportunities in Iraq "post regime change", the newspaper said.

"BP is desperate to get in there and anxious that political deals should not deny them the opportunity," it quoted minutes of the meeting as saying.

Former prime minister Tony Blair's decision to support the 2003 U.S.-led invasion was the most controversial of his 10-year premiership.

It led to internal divisions, huge protests at home and accusations that he deceived Britons over his reasons for war when weapons of mass destruction were not found.

BP told the Foreign Office that Iraq was "more important than anything we've seen for a long time," the newspaper said.

Then trade minister Elizabeth Symons assured the oil group that the government believed British energy firms should be given a share of Iraq's oil and gas reserves, given Blair's commitment to U.S. plans.

"Baroness Symons agreed that it would be difficult to justify British companies losing out in Iraq in that way if the UK had itself been a conspicuous supporter of the U.S. government throughout the crisis," the newspaper cited minutes of a meeting with BP, Shell and BG Group (BG.L) as saying.

A spokeswoman at the Foreign Office had no immediate comment. BP, Shell, and BG Group were not immediately reachable.

Security agencies detained a Denmark flagged ship following information that two crew members onboard were planning to offload arms and ammunition at Raigad near Mumbai on Sunday night.

Sources said Indian intelligence agencies were tipped off about the plans and the two crew members' names. Gangster Dawood Ibrahim's aides had offloaded explosives used in the March 1993 Mumbai serial bomb blasts at Raigad.

A coast guard vessel on patrol in area was sent to carry out a search operation on the ship following the tip-off.

A security official said, "A message was relayed through the radio frequency to all ships asking them about the presence of the two people whose names intelligence agencies had provided. MV Danica Sunrise, Denmark flagged vessel, that arrived in Mumbai on April 17, confirmed the presence of these two members in their team.''

The team boarded the Danish vessel anchored 2km off the Gateway of India. It carried a search of the vessel around 10.30 pm on Sunday apart from the interrogation of the crew members. In the next few hours, Anti-Terrorism Squad, immigration department, intelligence bureau and customs officials joined the coast guard team for inspection and interrogation that went on beyond midnight.

A source said, "No arms or ammunition were found. The vessel has been detained and further search and interrogation is being carried out." The two crew members were former British army soldiers.

A gunman in Afghan army uniform opened fire inside Kabul's defence ministry Monday, killing two soldiers and wounding seven in an audacious strike at the heart of government claimed by the Taliban.
The attack, which the militants said was aimed at France's visiting defence minister Gerard Longuet, was the third major assault on Afghan security targets in four days and one of the worst security breaches in years.
"A person in Afghan army uniform opened fire on his comrades, killed two soldiers, injured seven others, then was targeted himself and was brought down," Afghan army spokesman General Mohammad Zahir Azimi told AFP.
After his death, the attacker was found to be wearing a suicide vest, he said.
One of those killed was a bodyguard of the deputy defence minister, while those injured included an aide to the defence minister and a secretary to the army's chief of staff, said a senior security official speaking anonymously.
Defence Minister Abdul Rahim Wardak was not injured in the shootout, a Western security source said separately, but it is thought that the suicide bomber was shot dead close to the minister's office.
Earlier, a military source had told AFP on condition of anonymity that three insurgents had managed to enter the building, which faces President Hamid Karzai's palace, and all were killed.
The ambush inside the tightly-secured compound is thought to be the most high-profile security breach since a failed attempt on Karzai's life in 2008.
French defence minister Longuet is currently on a visit to Afghanistan but was not in the building at the time of the firefight.
A French official stressed they had seen "no evidence" that the attack was an attempt to kill Longuet, while his office said he was at Bagram airfield, more than 40 kilometres (24 miles) away, at the time.
The incident is now over and an investigation is under way.
Taliban spokesman Zabihullah Mujahid told AFP that Longuet was the target.
"The reason for conducting this attack is the invasion of Afghanistan by the French military," he said, adding that it was not carried out over the controversial banning of the Islamic full-face veil in France.
There are some 4,000 French troops stationed in Afghanistan as part of a roughly 130,000-strong NATO-led international force.
The Islamist militia are known frequently to exaggerate claims in relation to their attacks.
The incident comes amid a string of serious attacks on pro-government security forces in recent days by insurgents wearing military and police uniforms.
On Friday the police chief of Kandahar province in southern Afghanistan, seen as a key battleground in the war, was killed in the police headquarters by an attacker in police uniform.
And on Saturday, five international and four Afghan troops died when a member of the Afghan National Army blew himself up at an army base in Laghman province, eastern Afghanistan.
That was the deadliest single attack against foreign forces since December, while Saturday was the worst day for international troops in Afghanistan since June last year, with a total of eight soldiers killed.
Elsewhere in Afghanistan on Monday, six police officers were killed by a roadside bomb in Ghazni province, central Afghanistan, the provincial police chief said, in an attack also claimed by the Taliban.
In three months' time, Afghan forces are due to start taking control of security from foreign troops in eight more peaceful areas of the country, allowing for limited international withdrawals.
Afghan forces are due to take full control of security in their country in 2014, allowing a full withdrawal of foreign combat troops.
The fighting season in Afghanistan is starting to get under way as spring arrives, and Western officials including US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton have warned it could bring some of the bloodiest fighting yet in the near ten-year war.

Hundreds of chanting supporters waved green flags and pledged loyalty to Libyan ruler Moammar Gadhafi after thunderous explosions believed to be NATO airstrikes pounded targets in the capital.
"I have a message to NATO and to the United Kingdom and France," a man wrapped in a green flag said Saturday night. "We say to them, we will kill you if you come to our land."
Others chanted, "go go Sarkozy," referring to French President Nicolas Sarkozy. France is one of the nations taking part in the coalition airstrikes.
"Everyone here will die for Moammar Gadhafi," a young man said.

Americans shot dead while training Afghan police as protests continue over the burning of a Qur'an by a US pastor



Afghan protesters burn an effigy of the American pastor Terry Jones during a demonstration near Kabul. Photograph: Rahmat Gul/AP
A rogue Afghan border police officer has shot dead two US soldiers on a training mission as hundreds of people turned out on the streets for a fourth day of protests against the burning of a Qur'an by a fundamentalist US pastor.

Up to 1,000 residents in the eastern city of Jalalabad blocked the main highway to Kabul and set alight effigies of the pastor, Terry Jones, who presided over the burning, according to a spokesman for the provincial governor.

Hundreds held peaceful protests in neighbouring Laghman and nearby Paktia provinces. In southern Helmand province, residents of Lashkar Gah were coming out for a demonstration when a thwarted suicide attack cleared the streets.

About 20 people have been killed and nearly 150 wounded over three days of protests that have degenerated into violence, although other large gatherings ended peacefully.

The protests were driven by anger at Jones, a radical fundamentalist Christian preacher, who supervised the burning of a Qur'an in front of about 50 people at a church in Florida on 20 March.

Western political and military leaders, including the US president, Barack Obama, and the top US and Nato commander in Afghanistan, General David Petraeus, have condemned the Qur'an burning, as well as the violence that followed.

Those condemnations appear to have done little to placate anger or anti-western sentiments across much of Afghan society.

Jones has been unrepentant about the Qur'an burning and has since vowed to lead an anti-Islam protest outside the biggest mosque in the US later this month.

The shooting in Faryab of two foreign soldiers who were training Afghan police has highlighted another challenge for US and Nato forces as they try to prepare for a gradual handover of security responsibilities that begins in July.

Abdul Sattar Bariz, deputy governor of northern Faryab province, said two American soldiers were killed at a checkpoint by a member of the Afghan border police in what appeared to be the latest in a string of rogue shootings.

"He killed the two trainers while they were teaching [Afghan police] in Faryab city," Bariz told Reuters by telephone.

Another top Libyan leader, Ali Abdessalam Treki, has defected to Egypt and two desertions in as many days has spread paranoia among Muammar Gaddafi's inner circle, stirring talk that many others may be preparing to follow, triggering a crackdown to stop them.

Treki, a former foreign minister and ex-president of the UN general assembly who has worked closely with Gaddafi for decades, announced his exist on opposition websites, declaring "it's our right to live in freedom and democracy." Pan-Arab channel Al-Jazeera reported that Gaddafi's intelligence chief and the speaker of the parliament had fled to Tunisia.

Afghan officials say five people were killed and 46 wounded during protests in the southern city of Kandahar over the reported burning of the Koran at a small church in the United States.

Zalmai Ayubi, spokesman for the governor of Kandahar Province, said the deaths occured as a crowd of hundreds of people turned violent and tried to burn vehicles and shops.

It is still unclear how the deaths and injuries occured.

The fatalities come a day after eight foreigners and four Afghans were killed when protesters stormed a UN office in the northern city of Mazar-e Sharif over the same reported Koran burning.

The UN Security Council and Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon condemned the April 1 killings.

The pastor of the Florida-based church, Terry Jones said he was "devastated" but did not feel responsible.

UK is "spreading its forces very thin" and a political resolution in Libya must be found quickly, a former armed forces chief has told peers.

Lord Stirrup said that Afghanistan used up most military resources and what was left was being used in Libya.

There could be "severe consequences" if there was a crisis involving Iran, for example, he told a Lords debate.

The UK, France and US have carried out strikes on Col Gaddafi's forces in Libya, aimed at protecting civilians.

Nato has now taken command of aerial operations in Libya, which followed a UN resolution backing a no-fly zone and "all necessary measures" short of an occupying force to protect Libyan civilians, following violence after an uprising against Col Muammar Gaddafi's 41-year rule.

But several peers with military backgrounds used Friday's debate to raise concerns about the pressures on British forces, at a time of defence spending cuts.

Lord Stirrup, chief of the defence staff between 2006 and 2010, told peers that while it had been pushed off the front pages - Afghanistan continued to use up most British military resources.

London Mayor Boris Johnson has said that if there was the "slightest evidence" that Libyan foreign minister Moussa Koussa was involved in the Lockerbie bombing, he should face trial. Koussa arrived in Britain on Wednesday and is said to have defected.
Prime Minister David Cameron said Mr Koussa's apparent defection told "a compelling story of the desperation and the fear at the very top of the crumbling and rotten Gaddafi regime".
He has also insisted that Mr Koussa had not been offered immunity from prosecution. Scottish prosecutors have asked to interview him about the 1988 Lockerbie bombing, which left 270 people dead, though government sources told the Guardian they did not think he was involved.

convicted bomb plotter jailed for 45 years for an attempt to blow up an Israeli airliner today won his appeal against the British government's refusal to release him.

Two High Court judges ruled that Nezar Hindawi, who is serving what is believed to be the longest specific jail term imposed by an English court, was subjected to a "flawed and unfair" decision-making process.

Hindawi was from a Palestinian family whose land had been expropriated by Israel, and who had become refugees in Jordan.

When the Middle East six-day war broke out and the village where he lived was burned he joined the Palestine Liberation Organisation (PLO), became a writer and travelled to London.

In 1986 he was convicted of attempting to destroy an El-Al plane flying from Heathrow to Tel Aviv.

He hid explosives in the hand baggage of his pregnant fiancee without her knowledge, but the explosives were detected and the plot failed.

Hindawi became eligible for possible parole in 2001 after serving one third of his sentence.

However successive ministers have rejected his applications for early release, leading to a series of legal battles.

In 2003 David Blunkett refused to refer his case to the Parole Board.

In 2009 the board recommended release but then-justice secretary Jack Straw refused, a decision also adopted by current Justice Secretary Ken Clarke.

But Lord Justice Thomas and Mrs Justice Nicola Davies quashed their decisions.

A further hearing will be held to decide whether the Supreme Court should now make a final ruling, or whether the Justice Secretary should be ordered to reconsider his decision.